In past years, YOURS has authored several youth declarations for road safety giving youth around the world a robust advocacy document to push for road safety at a governmental level. As we know, road safety is a multisectoral issue, meaning many of the different groups in society are required to work together to tackle different elements of road safety. With these declarations, young people have been able to lobby decision makers and open dialogue with those in power as well as their peers. We have now placed all declarations centrally available to view.

As part of our key pillar of ‘Advocacy and Awareness’, YOURS has been involved in a range of youth declarations for road safety. Declarations act as a fundamental advocacy tool to open dialogue between young people and key decision makers to discuss road safety and lobby for increased measures to save young lives. Youth declarations can be a powerful tool for advocacy, in fact, YOURS was born from the World Youth Declaration for Road Safety 2007.

The World Youth Declaration for Road Safety was adopted by over 400 young people from 100 countries at the first ever United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety 2007. The declaration was subsequently translated into many languages and presented to road safety and transport ministers all around the world officially creating the global youth movement for road safety. On the back of the ‘travelling declaration’ hundreds of road safety initiatives were started by young people who used their experiences to call for an organization to harmonize their voice and act as the global platform and umbrella of youth and road safety organization; that organization is YOURS – Youth and Road Safety.

It is clear how much of an impact a youth declaration for road safety can have and since then, we have been involved in the drafting, ratification and adoption of declarations around the world. Until now, the declarations have not been hosted in one central location and so we met the need to illustrate our advocacy efforts and have catalogued all of our declarations to view the evolution of the global youth movement for road safety.

Empowering young advocates with a tool, written with specific local issues in mind has given youth the opportunity to open up dialogue with key decision makers. Sometimes, young people have boundless energy and ideas to run road safety projects but when meeting decision makers on enacting road safety measures, can sometimes fall short in demanded or discussing the issues that matter to youth.

A declaration offers these advocates clear and concise ‘demands’ on which to open access to those in power and those who can make things happen on a local, national and regional level. Additionally, the more young people unified with a declaration and the more decision makers approached, the higher road safety will be in the mindset of these people with the potential for road safety to then appear higher on the agendas.

Youth Declarations for Road Safety are only as significant as their active persual and implementation. Youth can use these declarations to put pressure on decision makers for road safety but we must ensure that all declarations are followed up on to see if the adoption and endorsement of such declarations have been acted upon. 

Click here to the Youth Declarations for Road Safety in one place

Safe and sustainable transport must be part of the post-2015 development agenda, a High Level Session organised by UN-DESA, UN-HABITAT and the Ford Foundation was told. The session, which coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly was led by the Prime Minister of Jamaica Portia Simpson-Miller, Zoleka Mandela, granddaughter of Nelson Mandela and global road safety campaigner, double Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Maksimychev. It was part of a Global Consultation on Sustainable Transport running over two days.

The session was chaired jointly by Nikhil Seth, Director of Sustainable Development at UN-DESA and Saul Billingsley Acting Director General of the FIA Foundation. Prime Minister Simpson-Miller led the event calling for commitment by the United Nations to ensure that combatting road traffic injury is included in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

She said: “Given the magnitude of the global situation concerning road safety, and the enormous impact on low and middle income countries, it is imperative that the issue is a UN priority and is included in our discussions as we seek to determine the post-2015 development agenda. Road safety is already a priority for Jamaica and we are proof that all countries can save lives on the roads. This is why we are proud to campaign with the family of Nelson Mandela, to uphold the values of social justice and ensure that we have safe roads for all.”

The Prime Minister outlined the road safety programme that Jamaica has carried out to reduce the level of fatalities below 300 annually, a reduction of 25% in just over four years. The Jamaican Government now has a target to reduce fatalities further, to below 240 annually.

Zoleka Mandela’s involvement in the event followed campaigning at UNICEF House the previous day as part of an event to mark 1 million votes on MY World, the UN’s global public survey on Post-2015.
She said: “Most of the time, road deaths are not considered to be a development crisis. But in front of our eyes, every day, on the roads in my country and around the world we see otherwise. Road traffic injury is a burden on the poor, and a plague upon the young. Like poverty, and like other major public health epidemics, it can be overcome. The post-2015 goals provide our opportunity to join together to make safe and sustainable transport a priority, and to prevent so much unnecessary suffering.” 

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce pledged her support for the Long Short Walk campaign which Zoleka is leading together with Make Roads Safe. The double Olympic 100m Champion and World Champion said: “I want to see better protection for young people worldwide. Road traffic injury is the biggest killer of 15-29 year olds globally. As an athlete I want to encourage our children to be physically active, to walk or cycle to school. But in too many of our cities this is just not possible, or simply too dangerous. I’m standing proudly with the Mandela family, I’m joining the Long Short Walk, and I call upon our leaders to take action. I urge governments and the international community to come together and put plans in place to save lives and to protect the vulnerable on our roads.”

Prime Minister Simpson Miller, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Zoleka Mandela led a Long Short Walk photo opportunity to call for action to ensure that road safety is included in the UN’s Development Goals.

 Take part in the Post-2015 SDG consultation and read more here.